Nearing the End of 5th Grade Homeschool

Officially, our “homeschool year” isn’t over until August, and I will continue to give my boys lessons through the summer. However, when the weather turns warm, we start making time to get outdoors, and I begin to prioritize our lessons in this way:

What can we finish before June?

What do I want to stop and carry over until September?

What will we do for summer lessons?

I have been concentrating on those things I want to finish and putting other things aside so that we can enjoy the good weather, and I’m making flexible plans for the summer, which I’ll write about later.

The Life of Fred series continues to be a winner in our house, and we’ve finished up to the book titled Liver. I will probably save Mineshaft for next year. We’ve started using Kahn Academy, which my son likes. (I tried it a year or two ago, and it wasn’t a good fit then.) We also used a Spectrum Workbook, but less so, since we began Kahn Academy. We have found the videos on Mathantics to be extremely helpful.

My heading at the beginning of the year was “Spanish,” but now I’ve changed it to “Foreign Language.” This is because….yes, I may be crazy!…we’ve begun learning two foreign languages: Spanish and Chinese.

Learning languages has been fun, but we’ve taken it slow (like we do with everything), and I feel like this year has been more about figuring out how to teach the languages than actually learning much of it. It hasn’t been easy, but I’m going to keep trying. I will write more detailed posts when I feel like I have more to say about it.

You can read about my search to find the perfect Spanish curriculum in the Winter 2018 issue of home/school/life magazine. We have been using Risas y Sonrisas, and I love it. We’re trying out Better Chinese for Chinese.

In November, we went to Chicago to visit relatives, and we took the boys to the Art Institute of Chicago. Leading up to this trip, I spent a few weeks teaching the boys about the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists as well as a few other artists whose works were featured in that museum. We did some related art projects too. It was so much fun, and my eleven-year-old especially enjoyed it. He likes art history, especially when he learns about an artist who lived at the same time as one of the famous music composers. In fact, I gave him an assignment to find two artists who lived during the time of two composers, and then we searched for their artwork at the museum.

For our art history lessons, I have found the artist bios on ducksters.com to be a great starting off point as well as Art With Mati and Dada, other YouTube videos, and, of course, library books. I ordered several Chicago Institute of Art books from our state-wide inter-library loan system.

Music

If you read my blog regularly, you know that music is what our days are all about, so I won’t repeat that information here. I’ve already written about my 5th grader’s third year of piano lessons, and you can view his YouTube channel here. It shouldn’t be too long before we post more videos there. 🙂

That’s our 5th grade curriculum in a nutshell. It’s been a full, good year, and I’m very pleased with what my son has achieved. I’ll eventually follow up with a review of my 2nd grader’s year too.

12 thoughts on “Nearing the End of 5th Grade Homeschool”

So glad to hear that, Camie! Thanks! (And I think it sounds so much more impressive when I write it all down compared to how it feels day-to-day! Not being negative, but I hope you know what I mean. 😉 )

Well there is always ALWAYS more CURRICULUM options. And if I gave you anything, it would be this one thing: enjoy the process. If you’re not enjoying the approach or the curriculum somehow, change up how you’re doing it;) (and it usually has more to do with HOW you’re thinking about homeschooling or parenting than it does with the actual curriculum.) But really, you have great ideas!

Your comments keep me going, so please leave a message. I'm happy to answer your questions. I usually respond with an e-mail within 48 hours, but even if I don't, I read and appreciate every comment. You do not need to leave a name or e-mail, but unless you have left a message before, I will have to approve it before you see it here. Cancel reply

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In a Nutshell…

We are project-based homeschoolers who let our kids’ interests take over our lives. (I’m not exaggerating much.) We also teach academic subjects that they will need to get into good universities because that seems to be where they are headed. Our boys have many interests that have led us on a journey of discovery. Some of their interests include science and nature, particularly birds and horticulture. They are also musicians. One son is an aspiring classical pianist. The other wants to play cello as a hobby. My husband is a professor and historian. I’m a writer and love literature. There is never a boring day in this house. Please join us on our journey by following this blog.

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